Logs:(No) Big Deal

(No) Big Deal
Dramatis Personae Dallen, Tok
In Absentia	2024-12-03 "I didn't mean to make a big deal. Sorry. I just -- it's -- mine."
Location <XAV> Music Room - Xs Second Floor
Wide and spacious, seating in this soundproofed room comes largely on the sweep of gentle risers that afford the teacher an easy view of all the budding performers, and add another dimension to the acoustics of the room. Instruments of all types are carefully stored around the room, and a grand piano, immaculately upkept, takes the position of prize near the back. In a nod to the eclectic studies of the students, digital mixing equipment and turntables rub shoulders with the classical instruments. Music stands sit in front of most of the seats, and the only windows look out out over the side of the school grounds. The sky is darkening outside and most of the students are either at dinner or headed that way. Dallen has been in here alone at the piano for a while, too absorbed in the music to notice time or hunger. She's wearing a short pink cardigan, a red stand-collar blouse, and a long black skirt. She's not playing any recognizable piece, there's no sheet music in front of her, and even if there were, her eyes are closed. The music flowing from her fingertips is dynamic and sublime, evoking a whimsical journey through majestic landscapes. Granted, she's helping the evocation along with the play of shadows around her, which in no way matches the actual features and lighting of the room currently, but instead depict imposing cliffs and canyons and buttes. There is a shadow rabbit leaping and capering across these fantastical shadow mountains, and a human figure giving chase. Just when the rabbit appears to be cornered at a sheer cliff, it turns with a dramatically abrupt chord progression and bounds out of the wall into three dimensions to escape the hunter. It lands on the risers and dances in a circle as if to taunt the figure firing (flat) arrows in vain. Tok had been darting by, backpack slung over her shoulder, perhaps on her way to dinner from a corner she’d found to work on homework from. Her clothes are rumpled, faded oversized t-shirt, unzipped sweat shirt, surprisingly too long basketball shorts despite the cold weather. A brief glance towards the small window of the Music Room door has her step stuttering though, and quickly backpedaling, ears twitching upwards in curiosity. She’s pushing the door open, silently, and her eyes widen and mouth hangs open at the light show (shadow show?) on display, along with the music to accompany it. She eagerly steps further in, eyes tracking the rabbit as it darts about the room. She can’t seem to stop the sharp gasp of surprise that sounds in time with the rabbit turning 3D. Her tail twitches in a stuttering back and forth which, perhaps in their short time as roommates, Dallen would recognize as either an anxious manner or antsy-ness, or both. Despite this there’s a sharp, bright grin on her face that pulls their sharp teeth clearer into view as she watches the show. She quickly snaps her hand over her mouth in an attempt to quiet the gasp that escapes, as if that might retroactively keep the sound from escaping. Dallen had not really reacted when Tok entered, but the flow of the mischievous chords shifts. The rabbit hops down the risers to the rhythm of bright major notes, and rears up in front of Tok, tilting its head and twitching its nose with a long playful trill. "Do you want to play?" Dallen asks quite suddenly, her song quieting into a soft Pachelbel progression. "I've never seen you play but I don't want to assume and hog the piano." Tok takes a small step back as the rabbit approaches, and her own nose twitches in a mirror of it. There’s a spark of white glow that flickers in her blood vessels, that she manages to stamp down, for now. She leans to look past the rabbit towards Dallen, bright and eager, “Can I?” She darts around the rabbit to then stop by the piano. She leans on the side of it to watch Dallen play, and her own eagerness to play is quickly transformed into a brief hesitation, “Actually- I dunno how to play.” She admits. "You can learn." Dallen picks out "Chopsticks" against the much softer backdrop of lilting chords. "I have a lot to learn, too." The shadow rabbit suddenly bounds off and and leaps back into the 2D shadow world cast on the walls. "I don't mind, I've been playing a while, I should take a break anyway." She trails off into a restful grace note and scoots over to one side of the bench. “You think so?!” Tok eagerly takes the seat. Her claws hover over the keys, then press all at once, then quickly in a sporadic combination of notes. “You’re making like- a whole shadow story while you’re playing! I’d say you’re a pro already.” Her eyes jump excitedly up to the rabbit, back down to the keys, then to Dallen. Her tail continues its twitching behind her, and there’s a quick click click clicking that sounds from her throat. Her leg bounces excitedly, “It’s SO cool. OH! Heyheyhey can I tr-” she’s not finishing the sentence, because her eyes are suddenly flashing bright. And with it, maybe there’s a feeling of something going missing, a loss of a sense, something else slotting in place, like reaching out to something in a dark room and finding something that shouldn’t belong, something unrecognizable. Or maybe, it’s not noticeable at all—save for the sudden deconstruction of the shadow puppets about the room. "Oh yes," Dallen says confidently, though judging by her wince it's possible that evaluation has changed the moment Tok started playing. "Just now it felt a little more like I was making the music and the music was making the story. But I think I like making both of them for the same reason. It puts..." She frowns and prods gently at her head with her fingertips. "...what's in here. It makes more sense than..." She frowns deeper, still struggling for words, but though she isn't currently speaking, when the shadows dissolve she sits bolt upright with the very definite air of cutting off a sentence. She forms the shape of the word 'what' several times without actually voicing it, and looks at the piano accusingly as if it had somehow banished her shadows. And then she turns to Tok, blinking rapidly. When she finally does manage to speak it's just the single word "what." Tok is still staring at Dallen, uncommonly still, even her tail has paused mid-motion. She looks halfway between alarmed and surprised herself. She suddenly unfreezes, and her tail is quick to coil around her own waist. She raises her hands almost in a mixture of placating and surrender, “I- uh- Don’t worry I’m gonna give it right back!” They insist, a high pitch excited, nervous laugh escaping her, and weirdly the shadows about the room flicker and stutter in tandem with it. The shadows roil and collapse in on themselves, like an oil and water lava lamp, no rhyme or reason to the shapes or structures of it. “Just borrowing it real quick!” "What," Dallen says again. She's tapping her head with her fingertips, quick and agitated. "What. What -- sorry -- what do you mean. That's not what 'borrowing' means. Please. It's not --" Her head jerks towards the rolling shadows. "I'm not doing that. Am I doing that." She shuts her eyes tight, and her fingers flutter faster. Her voice is abruptly very loud, and this question does sound like a question, as if the interrogative intonation were stored with the volume. "Are you doing that?" Tok is standing up quick, but not so much in a startled way and more so in a sudden burst of energy. The shadows about the room spike like the sound waves of an audio recording, “Yeah yeah I am! Pretty cool right?” She’s insisting, as if trying to convince Dallen. She spreads out her fingers towards some of the shadows, maybe in an attempt to control them. Nothing happens, “And I guess it’s not borrowing, cause I traded you! You can play with mine too. I say a fair trade!” She squints her eyes in concentration at the shadows, “Hey how do you even do the cool rabbit thing?” She asks offhandedly. Dallen had slapped her hands over her mouth as if startled by her own volume, and is now shaking her head emphatically and repeatedly. "That's not what 'trade'..." After a moment's indecision she forges on. "That's not borrowing or trading, that's stealing. Give it back. Please." She follows Tok's focused stare to the disobedient shadow. "You have to find the edge and --" She presses her lips firmly shut and shakes her head with such an exaggerated motion that it looks like she's trying to clear it of something. “You keep shaking your head like that you’ll turn your brain into a smoothie! That’s what Pa always said.” She narrows her eyes even more, focusing on the edge of one of the shadows, grin sharpening. It’s roiling is…maybe smoothing out, for only a split second. Hard to tell. “OHOH! You see that!? Almost had somethin’ there.” She says excitedly. She looks at Dallen and tilts her head curiously, “Just- what’s the big deal, S’just for a lil bit right?! I could even teach you how to use mine if you wanna!” Dallen stops shaking her head and instead says, firmly, "No." But she can't really help looking to Tok's flailing efforts at shadow puppetry. "Don't try to move the shadow. The shadow isn't a thing, it's..." She hugs herself, hands tucked firmly under her arms, and starts shaking emphatically again. "I didn't say it was a big deal," she protests. "I didn't mean to make a big deal. Sorry. I just -- it's -- mine." “They’re not things?” Tok sits back down quick on the edge of the chair. The colliding shadows have begun to turn into slower waves, crashing down then swirling swirling swirling into tight spirals. There’s still no rhyme or reason to the movement, nothing intentional and still entirely reactive. “You never just wanna try somethin’ new for a change?” She asks curious, genuine. She sticks out her tongue in concentration and wiggles her fingers some more. “It’s in safe hands, too. I’ve done this kinda thing buncha times before.” "Okay. You tried it, now give --" Dallen stills and frowns deeply at the question, giving a few false starts before...not answering it. "Something new. It's not new. Knew not new. I knew you stole things. I didn't know you could steal this. No. No." She's twisting her entire torso side to side again. "I told you no. I thought you were just --" She opens her mouth several times before managing the word "-- stupid. But I'm stupid. You're mean, and you're lying." She doesn't raise her voice until the very last word, and even then it's kind of incidental to the effort of clumsily tackling Tok off the bench. Tok frowns slightly, “Told you, I trade I don’t steal.” She says easily, and the ear closest to Dallen flicks sharply at the word stupid. She’s opening her mouth and turning quickly to respond, but she never gets the chance to before she’s tackled off the bench. She lands on the ground with a sharp gasp of pain, winding her at the same time. She sucks in some quick gasps, and a sharp hiss click click hiss click escapes. Her ears pin back and she’s baring her teeth, but maybe it almost looks like a grin. The shadows about the room spike and shutter with a new energy. She shoves at Dallen, to little avail from her angle, “Don’t call me- I ain’t stupid!- GETOFFa me!” She shoves again, harder, and this time her claws catch the skin of Dallen’s arm, tearing the sleeve of her cardigan in the process. Dallen is clearly not a brawler. Her first attempt at a punch is easily blocked and will do little more than sting if it lands. "That's not what I said!" she snaps, and swats one of Tok's hands out of the way, an errant claw drawing a thin line of blood on the back of her hand. "You pretend to be stupid so you can get away with things. That's worse than stupid." She sits back slightly and her knee digs into Tok's stomach, not very securely pinning her in place. "Give back what you stole." She draws her fist back again and, without any apparent irony, adds, "Please." Tok does, at least manage to cover her face at Dallens first punch. She grits her teeth and a low growl rumbles from deep in her chest, "THAT'S EXACTLY what you-! I'm not lying-" The growl mixes into the word, she shoves again, claws catching on her once more, "I'm not faking! I'm not- oof" A painful breath is pushed out of her when Dallen's knee digs into her stomach. Her eyes widen at Dallen's fist, "OKAY FINE FINE FINE-" She wheezes out, there's a stark flash of white in Tok's eyes, and the shadows are returned to Dallen with a sudden thud, quick and desperate. Tok doesn't wait, and she's already attempting to twist out from under her, blood vessels stuttering with a white glow that she forcibly attempts to keep down. "THERE SEE? I told you!" Dallen flinches as Tok's claw leaves another, longer scratch on her forearm. With the swap back, her fist unclenches and she slides off of Tok to sit back on her other foot, suddenly heavy. "Thank you. It wouldn't have been a big deal if you did it when I asked." The room grows dark, and when the darkness lifts all the shadows appear to be back where they belong. Except for Tok's shadow, which is somewhat disconcertingly missing. "Never do that again, please." She swallows, then swallows again, blinking hard as she scrambles to her feet. For a moment she just stands there, uncertain. Then she hastens away, closing the door of the music room (gently!) behind her. Tok pushes herself quickly to her feet once she’s free, the fur of her tail puffed huge, a low growl still buzzing through the air. She watches Dallen, silently, then looks to the shadows with a sort of disappointment that they’re no longer hers to control. Then her eyes are drawn to the scratches on Dallen’s arm, and something distinctly uncomfortable passes across her face that finally cuts the growling short. Her clawed fingers flex, then curl in, then she smiles, stiff, “You allergic to fun or something? Sure fine.” She says easily with a shrug, hands raising up in mock surrender. Her teeth bite into her smile, and as the door slides shut, she adds, quietly, “Thanks for playing.”